David Price, the British heavyweight champion, has been content to carry
himself “old school style” with Audley Harrison doing all the talking ahead
of their clash in Liverpool on Saturday night.

“He’s talking up big fights like he always does,” said Price, 6ft 8in tall, and with a quiet menace about him which has enabled him to put away 13 victims since he won the Olympic super-heavyweight bronze medal in Beijing in 2008.

“It doesn’t interest me to bad-mouth people,” Price said on Saturday. “I’m an old-school, old-fashioned boxer. People would rather watch someone like myself who lets their fists do the talking and tries to be a gentleman.

“Boxing fans want to watch a fight because of the way you fight in the ring, not because of what you say before it. There is an audience for two fighters who don’t like each other, but I also believe there’s an audience for the more traditional sportsman.

“I’ve always seen it as a sign of weakness as a boxer if you have to go out bad-mouthing and try to create attention for yourself. I don’t want to put anyone in any type of danger or hurt them but I do want to get the job done: knock people out and get the fight over with. My personality outside of the ring will never change no matter what.”

Harrison has lurched from contest to contest since winning his Olympic gold medal in Sydney 12 years ago, having ridicule heaped on him as he has built a 28-5 winning record and accepts he had in the past “lived a lie”. No more pertinent an example of this was his non-challenge against David Haye for the World Boxing Association heavyweight title in November 2010, when he pawed out one jab in three rounds, before being clubbed to the floor like a carcass.

“You can’t live a lie when you’re on that starting line and I have lived a lie in the amateurs and professional game,” said Harrison. “I did just enough to win because I had that talent and chip on my shoulder to pull it out, but that ignorant guy doesn’t exist any more. This is my last chance saloon.”

Harrison, 40, has always promised much but struggled to deliver. The 10 fights Harrison had after the Sydney Games, broadcast on the BBC, which netted him £1 million of licence fee funds but signalled the beginning of the end of boxing on BBC television.

Price, 29, said: “I have to give him respect, and take him seriously. He was an Olympic gold medallist 12 years ago, he’s 40 now. He’s an old man in boxing terms especially with the injuries he’s suffered so although he’s saying he’s feeling great, time catches up with everyone.

“This is a step up from my last fight against a former Commonwealth champion in Sam Sexton. Now I’m fighting a former European champion who has been Olympic champion, and who has fought for a world title.”

Judging by his mood, Price wants to get the job done, and although Harrison has smothered other heavyweights and beaten them with a heavy left hand which the southpaw does possess, he may well end up on the canvas early in this latest reincarnation.

Tale of the tape

David Price

Age: 29

Hometown: Liverpool

Record: 13 (11 KO)

Height: 6ft 8in

Reach: 82in

Titles: Current British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion

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Audley Harrison

Age: 40

Hometown: London

Record: 28 wins (21KOs), 5 defeats

Height: 6ft 5in

Reach: 85in

Titles: Former Olympic superheavyweight champion, former European heavyweight champion